The Slatest

Draymond Green Suspended for Game 5 of NBA Finals for Repeatedly Hitting Opponents in the Groin

Draymond Green tapped two testicles too many. The NBA announced on Sunday that the Golden State Warriors forward has been suspended for Game 5 of the finals after punching the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James in the junk during the fourth quarter of Friday’s Game 4. Green was retroactively assessed a flagrant 1 foul for what the NBA called a “retaliatory swipe of his hand to the groin.” The flagrant 1 gave Green four “flagrant foul points,” triggering a one-game suspension. ESPN reports that the league’s crotch scene investigation included “looking at numerous angles of the play and interviewing James and Green as part of the process.”

Green was fined $25,000 and slapped with a more-severe flagrant 2 foul—“unnecessary and excessive contact committed by a player against an opponent”—for kicking the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Steven Adams in the groin during Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. He was not suspended for that act of leg-on-groin violence.

But wait, there’s more: In Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, Green kneed Adams in the groin. He was not called for any kind of foul on that play, either during the game or retroactively.

Green’s slap at James’ downtown business district means the Warriors star has now attacked the groins of players in both of the NBA’s conferences this postseason, using his right knee, right foot, and now his right hand. A word of advice for Green’s future opponents: The man can’t go left (when he’s targeting your crotch).

The Warriors hold a commanding 3–1 lead over the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, with Game 5 set for Monday night in Oakland, California. On news of Green’s suspension, sports books dropped Golden State to a 5 ½–point favorite in Game 5, down from seven points earlier in the day. If the Warriors lose Game 5, Green will be eligible to return for Game 6 in Cleveland on Thursday, at which point all of the Cavaliers players would be advised to wear cups. 

This is the second suspension for a punch to the groin during this year’s postseason. The Cavaliers’ Dahntay Jones was benched for one game for clocking the Raptors’ Bismack Biyombo below the belt in the Eastern Conference Finals.